Zach Clark and his sister Cora have been leading this effort since 2019, although the community fund has been around since the 1970s, he said. This year, they have around 125 kids signed up to receive gifts. The Clarks, along with a core group of volunteers, will be hard at work organizing gifts and packing meals as a way to bring joy to families this holiday season, and they can always use more help.

There are several ways to get involved with this year’s giving. If you’re in the mood for some extra gift shopping, the “elfing” trees have tags with a child’s age, gender and interests. People can choose a tag and buy gifts based on these guidelines. These gifts should be bagged or wrapped, labeled with the original tag from the tree and dropped off at the same location (the Palace Theatre or the Lake Placid Health and Fitness Center) by Sunday, Dec. 8.

Other new, unwrapped gifts can be dropped off from now until Dec. 8 at drop boxes at the following locations in the village: Tina Leonard Real Estate, the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort, the Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center, the NBT Banks on Main Street and Saranac Avenue, Kinney’s Drugs, Champlain National Bank, Community Bank and Walgreens.

The fund also needs monetary donations for food baskets and to buy additional gifts and winter clothes. Checks may be sent to the North Elba Community Christmas Fund, c/o Cora or Zach Clark, 2693 Main St., Lake Placid, NY 12946.

Toys and gifts are seen ready to be handed out to families at the High Peaks Resort for the North Elba Community Christmas Fund in 2022. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

The gifts will be distributed to families at an event at the High Peaks Resort. Clark said they have a core group of “hardcore” volunteers who help organize the massive amount of gifts so that families can have a private “shopping” experience.

The other part of the operation is the food baskets, which will be organized on Friday, Dec. 13. In terms of volunteers, the organization’s biggest need is for members of the community to help deliver the food baskets to families around town.

Anyone interested can come to the Crowne Plaza at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14 to receive instructions and to help deliver as many baskets as they would like. Clark said they have lots of volunteers who love doing this every year, listening to Christmas carols as they run around town delivering food.

“We’ve had many volunteers in the past, it’s very well-received around town,” he said. “People are very generous, that’s why Lake Placid is the great town it is.”